Evangelical Church Primož Trubar (Ljubljana)
The Evangelical Church Primož Trubar or Evangelical Primus Truber Church , Slovenian Evangeličanska cerkev Primoža Trubarja , formerly Christ Church (Kristusova cerkev), is the only church of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Ljubljana . It was completed in 1851 and consecrated in January 1852.
Architecture and interior design
The church has the shape of a basilica with a rectangular floor plan, built in the neo-Romanesque style. On the side of the nave is the bell tower with three bells on a square floor plan.
Inside there is an oil painting by the painter Pavel Künl from 1852, which depicts Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's fountain, behind the wooden, central pulpit, to which two stairs lead on both sides . The organ by France Goršič from 1888 has 12 stops and 2 manuals.
History of the parish and the church
The Evangelical Church in Ljubljana had its beginnings with the reformers , including Primož Trubar , whose Slovenian translation of the Catechism was published in 1550, and Georg Dalmatin , whose Slovenian translation of the Bible followed in 1584. Protestantism, which was particularly prevalent in Carniola among the nobility and bourgeoisie, was suppressed with the Counter-Reformation, so that no Protestant communities could exist any longer. It was not until the Tolerance Patent in 1781 under Joseph II that freedom of belief was provided, but there were no more Protestants in Ljubljana in the 18th century.
At the beginning of the 19th century some Protestants moved to Laibach, mostly merchants from German-speaking countries as well as some soldiers and officers. The first church services in private apartments were held in 1818 with the Villach pastor L. E. Blume. The Ljubljana authorities stopped efforts by Protestants to hold regular public services. Pastor Wolf was present at the funeral of the Swiss coffee house owner A. Capretz, but he was not allowed to conduct the funeral. Shortly afterwards, Wolf led the first public Protestant church service in Ljubljana in over 200 years in the hall of the Teutonic Order (today Križanke ). In the years that followed, however, the authorities stopped public services, so Protestants continued to meet in private. The Thuringian businessman Gustav Heimann (1809–1870) played an important role for the Ljubljana Protestants, and evangelical meetings were held in his private home.
In 1848, the Evangelical Church AB in Austria was recognized as a church with equal rights and thus granted the right to build its own churches with portal and bell tower. In 1849 Gustav Heimann bought a piece of land on Klagenfurter Strasse for the Protestant church. The 200 or so Ljubljana Protestants, who had previously belonged to the Protestant parish in Trieste, received a decree on October 8, 1850 to found their own parish. The Evangelical Church Community of Laibach was founded on October 27, 1850 in the Virant House on Jakobsplatz. Gustav Heimann took over the management of the community, and the architect Gustav Lahn was commissioned to plan the church. The building permit for the church was granted on August 10, 1850. On April 21, 1851 Ludwig Theodor Elze from Dessau was elected pastor of the community and his cousin, the church musician Carl Friedrich Clemens Theodor Elze , was employed as cantor. At the end of 1851 the parish already had 332 parish members. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk took over a large part of the construction costs.
The church was completed in November 1851. During the clean-up work, a worker fell from the scaffolding and had a fatal accident. The church was the first Protestant church in Austria to have a small bell tower. In a small dome on the church roof, some documents about the origins of the community were kept. In 1852 an oil painting by the painter Pavel Künl was attached to the wall behind the pulpit , depicting Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's fountain. The woman's facial features correspond to those of one of Gustav Heimann's daughters. The church was consecrated on January 6, 1852 and was named Christ Church. The pastor Ludwig Theodor Elze was also introduced to his office on this day. Because of overcrowding, many worshipers had to stand outside in the cold.
On September 12, 1853, construction of the rectory and school began in the form of an extension to the church. The Protestant school was opened on May 22, 1855 and August Mebus from Angelrode was the first teacher to be employed. In September 1856 the community purchased a piece of land near Navje for the Protestant cemetery, which was opened in April 1857. Pastor Elze also played an important role as a theologian who wrote essays on the history of Slovenian Protestant literature and its authors (Trubar, Dalmatin, Bohorič), including the influence of the University of Tübingen on the same. After a dispute with the curator Gustav Heimann, he resigned on February 19, 1865.
From December 1866 until he left for Vienna in 1880, Friedrich Otto Schack, from Hesse, was the parish priest. He was followed by the Hungarian August Knieszer , who had to give up his post in 1892 due to irregularities in the administration of the office. During his tenure, the school was closed in 1890. In 1888 the church received a new organ with 12 stops and 2 manuals from France Goršič .
In 1892 Hans Jaquemar became the parish priest. The church was damaged in the earthquake of 1895 . Jaquemar then traveled through Germany to collect donations. So the church could be restored and expanded. This included the installation of a heater and a new fence around the church. A new, larger bell tower with three bells on the side of the nave was completed in 1897. On March 31, 1901, a Protestant kindergarten was opened. In the same year an own parish was founded in Cilli . In 1902 Pastor Jaquemar went to St. Pölten.
On February 11, 1906, Ottmar Hegemann was appointed pastor. In 1907 the bell tower received a clock.
During the First World War , the bells were requisitioned for war purposes in 1916 and Hegemann was sent to the front as military curator, where he died in September 1917. In September 1918 Erwin Schneider became a Protestant pastor in Ljubljana.
With the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , the evangelical community in Laibach plunged into a deep crisis. As early as 1918 the kindergarten was closed after a flu epidemic . In 1919 35 Protestant families had to leave the country and Pastor Schneider was transferred to Zagreb. Of the associations, only the Ljubljana Evangelical Women's Association survived until 1945. Anton Chraska led services in Slovene in 1919, but German remained the predominant language in the community until 1945 due to its membership structure.
After the Second World War , the new socialist authorities expropriated the church on the basis of the AVNOJ resolutions , as they viewed the community as an institution of the German minority. The pews were removed and a carpentry shop was set up in the church where theater sets were made. Of the interior, only the altarpiece and the organ have been preserved. Tenants were housed in the rectory.
In the following decades the number of Protestants in Ljubljana grew again due to immigration from the partly Protestant Übermur area . In 1953, the authorities allowed Protestants to use the state-owned church for worship. These took place at first irregularly and from 1976 on every Sunday and public holiday. They were led by pastors from the parishes in the Übermur area.
In 1985 the chaplain Geza Filo was sent as pastor of the evangelical parish in Ljubljana. In 1988 the parish rented an office and a parish hall in the nationalized rectory. In 1989 Geza Filo was formally installed as a Protestant pastor in Ljubljana.
On August 11, 1992, the Protestant parish in Ljubljana received the church and the rectory back. The church and the rectory were renovated in the following years until 1997. On June 6, 1999 the church was given its new name after Primož Trubar.
Church today
The parish shows slight growth due to immigration and admissions. Every Sunday and public holiday there is a service from 11 a.m. There are also services in German and English at irregular intervals.
literature
- Edita Filo: Evangeličanska cerkvena občina Ljubljana. Ob 160. obletnici blagoslovitve evangeličanske cerkve v Ljubljani . Evangeličanska cerkvena občina, Ljubljana 2012 (Slovenian).
Web links
Coordinates: 46 ° 3 ′ 19.1 ″ N , 14 ° 30 ′ 9.8 ″ E